We’re spending the week driving 60-plus new cars in order to decide our 2011 10Best list. When that many cars are gathered in one place, many of which we haven’t driven before, there are bound to be some unexpected discoveries. Be sure to check back throughout the week for more 10Best surprises, and look for our annual 10Best issue to hit newsstands on December 7.

A back seat is like a back door; you usually don’t pay much attention to it until you really need it. Automakers have varying approaches to the caboose. Some cars’ back seats look like they were hurriedly thrown together and crammed into the design five minutes before the assembly line started rolling. Others are as relentlessly detailed as the front seats and look as if someone’s job depended on getting them right, which is as it should be. Here are 10 back seats that demanded we take note:

Mini Countryman: Like everything else inside the Countryman, the two comfortable back seats are whimsically circular. At first you think they’re intended to look like toilet seats, but then you realize that they look exactly like the car’s ignition key, which looks like the Frisbee on top of the Starship Enterprise.

Kia Optima: The spacious bench in the back of the new, Jaguar XJ–shaped Kia Optima has two very distinct bucket-like depressions on the far left and right of the lower cushion, or what former C/D editor Patrick Bedard used to call “butt pockets.” If P. Bedard were still on staff, he would have marveled at these two spectacular specimens of the butt-pocket genre.

Jaguar XJL: Meanwhile, over in the real XJ, which seems about 87 feet long compared to most of the other cars in 10Best, the two sumptuous bucket seats in back are all business class, with enough legroom for someone with a 40-inch inseam to get in with swim fins on. With leather below and a moleskin headliner above, each seat has a glossy lacquered fold-down table upon which a laptop or cocktail mixer can reside. If you pull the tray, it extends to reveal a shallow divot. I assumed this depression was for your Mont Blanc pen. Another editor thought it should work well as a cocaine receptacle. Our disappointment was palpable when we discovered that what looked like two chrome-studded cigar lighters were just fake plastic plugs for the power outlets.

Cadillac CTS-V Sport Wagon: When you pull the driver’s front door handle, some electric device in the rear door has a spasmodic reaction. We don’t know why. The back bench is ergonomically shaped but low to the floor and none too comfortable. The CTS Coupe is actually more comfy in back, at least after you wriggle in past the seatbelt. Surrounded by thick bodywork and smoked glass, the back of the Coupe gives you a taste of life as a Chilean miner.

Volvo S60: Black and caramel-accented leather makes the S60’s back seat look rich, like a high-calorie desert from Stuckey’s. The seats are unexpectedly soft and cushy, like you’re sitting on warm bread fresh from the oven. Whoops, time for lunch.

Saab 9-5: Saab tries hard to be different. For example, the heavily louvered and slotted dashboard in the 9-5 gives you the impression of looking straight into the face of a ‘76 Coupe De Ville. However, the back seat is comfortably shaped in a decidedly dull and conventional way. This is a good thing.

Mazda 2: Snug but decently comfortable, the new Chevy Cruze’s back bench pretty much matches the Mazda 3’s for space and legroom, but both are beat out by the smaller Mazda 2, which is perplexingly like Dr. Who’s phone box in its confounding bigness inside. In America, people think the 2 is just waiting to be devoured as a cocktail weenie for some giant SUV. In Europe, it’s considered a respectable car for a family of four, and now I see why.

Chevrolet Volt: This car has two rear buckets separated by a tunnel that is apparently full of batteries or an atomic ion injector or something. A passage between them gives access to the trunk. The seats look spacey and futuristic but are tight for an adult and hard to get in and out of through the narrow back door. In my notes, I directed myself to make a brilliant joke that plays on the back chairs in the Volt and high-voltage electric chairs, but it never came to me.

Lotus Evora: Speaking of jokes, behold the Evora. Really, are they kidding? There’s more space in the overhead bin of a 737 than in the back of an Evora. Double-amputee pygmies were apparently the benchmark body form. Why did they bother? Cars in our test that don’t even have back seats: Honda CR-Z, Chevy Corvette, BMW Z4, Mazda MX-5 Miata, Porsche Cayman S, and Porsche Boxster Spyder. And I would give them all better back-seat scores than I do the Evora.

Porsche Panamera: Aaaaah! It’s like having the best seat in the Goodyear Blimp.